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Often, as I do my irregular trawl of the local charity shops and jumble sales, I see cheap copies of books that either (a) I love but already own or (b) I'm not interested in myself, but just know that a particular friend would want, but am not sure whether they already own it and/or would want to reimburse me for however much it costs, if it costs a substantial amount. This makes my eyes water and my shopping fingers twitch - I hate to pass up a bargain.
So it occurred to me that I would really like to see a site in which people could list their top few second-hand desires - and then, if I ever happened to see those books for cheap (like, cheap) as I went about the place, I could buy them and mail them to the people who wanted them. Or if it was a poster I knew and trusted, and I knew I was going to a book fair where their book was likely to be, I might ask them (via PM) whether they'd be willing to reimburse me for their listed book if I saw it for sale for (up to) a particular amount.
It also occurred to me, reading this thread, that the Books forum of Barbelith is full of posters with time on their hands, an eye for a bargain, and an interest in disseminating particular Barbe-toned material to discerning customers.
Hence, I have started this Book Swap thread for people to list books that they're especially desirous of getting their hands on. Now, Barbelith, it seems to me, has a pretty good record when it comes to the offline exchange of goods and services between its members (see the Free Books thread). But I think we should have some fairly strict ground rules for this thread, because if it turned into an auctioning-second-hand-books place, that could become nasty, and that's not what I had in mind.
(1) This thread is ONLY for listing books that you want - and for discussion between posters about the merits of those books. Posters should think of it mostly as a kind of "my dream book" thread: any actual book-receiving that occurs should be seen as a bonus.
(2) This is NOT a marketplace thread. Any posts offering to buy and/or sell books will be deleted. Any arrangements that involve money changing hands - eg paying for postage and/or paying for books - should be made by PM and/or email between the posters involved. Neither Barbelith nor the starter of this thread (ie me) will have any responsibility for such private arrangements.
If any of the mods or any legal-minded people can think of anything to add, please do so. If there are serious problems with this premise that I haven't thought of, let me know and we can lock/delete this thread. Otherwise, let's away!
I'm looking for:
Over the Hills to Fabylon [sic] by Nicholas Stuart Gray. Though, of course, if you find this for 20p somewhere you might rather sell it, seeing as how second-hand copies seem to be going for like £100. I just thought I'd ask.
Stalky & Co, by Rudyard Kipling. |
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